The Guardian is an ancient and massive construct built by the Makers and could reform its body even if defeated. It also serves as the last main boss fought in the Forge Lands, build to counter corruption but fell to its influence. After Death defeated it by stabbing the stone on its head, the source of its life force, Eideard sacrificed himself to purify it, and the Guardian destroyed itself to purge the Tree of Life of corruption.

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It was built by the Makers to counter Corruption when the substance began to consume their world, blocking access to the Tree of Life. However, an earthquake destroyed the only way to access the Foundry where the construct was being built, and the Guardian remained unfinished as Corruption devoured the Maker's realm.

Some untold time later, the Horseman Death accidentally traveled to the Maker's realm after a confrontation with the Crowfather. Trapped there just as everyone else in the realm was, Death began a quest to complete the Guardian and clear the way to the Tree of Life. After completing a number of tasks required to gain access to the Foundry, Death and a young Maker named Karn entered it and gathered three Heart Stones in order to give the colossus life. However, one of the Stones was Corrupted, and Corrupted the Guardian in turn when it was inserted into its frame. The Corrupted Guardian then went on a rampage, attacking the Maker settlement known as Tri-Stone. Elder Eideard quickly engaged the beast and attempted to purify the Corrupted Stone, but the Guardian was too Corrupted to be purified, and too powerful for Eideard to overcome. Unable to stand against the Guardian, Eideard beseeched Death to put the construct down. Death succeeded in doing so after a short battle, but, as no other tool exists to destroy the Corruption blocking access to the Tree, Eideard was forced to use every ounce of power at his disposal to reconstruct the colossus. Drained of even his life-force, the elder Maker passed on and the Guardian, now purified, briefly mourned his loss. The Guardian then attacked the gigantic, living Corruption growth blocking access to the Tree, but the growth counter-attacked and attempted to Corrupt the Guardian once again. However, with its last strength, the construct slamed its head into the Corruption, destroying both the Corruption and the guardian permanently. leaving only its enormous hammer behind.

Even though he is big, he is slow. Use Despair to ride out of his reach when slams his hammer to the ground. Once his arm has reached the ground, shoot on the bombs attached to his arm with Redemption and his arm will fall off for a short time. Ride back in range to damage the heart stone on his shoulder by using Death Grip to reach it, his arm will eventually fall off and you can damage the heart stone further, continue this until phase 2. The Guardian's hammer strikes send out waves of stone spikes across the ground as very high speeds, and once he strikes, he pulls his arm out of firing range fairly quickly. Due to these two facts, it is useful to stay relatively close to the Guardian during this phase. It makes dodging the hammer strikes much easier, and it puts Death in range of the bombs on the hammer arm once the Guardian strikes.

Another, simpler way to deal with this phase is simply to stand in one place and wait for the Guardian to strike. When he does, simply dodge backwards or to one side at the instant his hammer is about to hit you. The strike will miss and you will be able to run slightly to the side and shoot the bombs. You will not need to use Despair at all if this procedure is followed.

When his arm falls off and he drops his hammer, phase 2 will begin. In this phase he will launch explosive spheres out of the cannon on his left arm. Use Despair to outride the spheres, using his stamina is recommended, as the spheres are fast. Shoot from Despair's back at the ball and it will begin to spin in mid-air.

When this occurs, run between The Guardians legs and the ball will go flying at you. If you execute this correctly the sphere will smash into The Guardian and topple him over and place his left arm on the ground. Run up his arm and use Death Grip to grab hold of the heart stone and damage it. Repeat this process until the left arm falls off. It is worth noting that, after the first time the cannon-arm's heart stone is attacked, the Guardian will begin to launch bombs at Death much more rapidly, resulting in two or more bombs possibly being present on the screen at any one time.

Again, it is possible to complete this phase without using Despair. To do so, stay close to the Guardian and begin shooting at the bomb with Redemption as the Guardian launches it. Fire all but one of the gun's bullets as quickly as possible at the bomb. This will take away most of the bomb's health, and will allow Redemption to regenerate enough bullets quickly enough to finish the bomb off before it reaches you. If you stay relatively close to the Guardian during this phase, you can simply run past the Guardian while the bomb is floating, after which the bomb will collide with the Guardian and send it to it's knees.

The Guardian Freezes - After defeating The Guardian you might incur a scenario in which the guardian will freeze. Instead of destroying the corruption to clear a path for you, he just does nothing.

To fix this, you will have to quit the game and start from your last save, which is most likely just before entering the fight. Then you should fast travel to a different location(except fast travel is unavailable during this entire section). After you've done that head back to the fight with the guardian, if all goes well you should see the game loading just before entering the fight (not saving, but loading). If you see this the glitch is likely to not occur again. If The Guardian still freezes, try this trick again. The key to this fix is that you have to let the game load the fight again, as the problem probably lies there.

The Guardian Doesn't Fall - When shooting the bombs on the Guardian's right arm with Redemption, the bombs explode without bringing him to his knees. As it is necessary to bring the Guardian down to damage him, the fight can not continue if this glitch occurs.

Reloading the game from the auto-save before the fight usually solves this problem.